"It's an incredible
population" with radically different diets and ways of living, said the
researchers.

They admit the rest of the world cannot
revert to a hunter-gathering and early farming existence, but said there were
lessons for all of us.

Tsimane?

Tsimane is
pronounced "chee-may-nay".

There are around 16,000 Tsimane who
hunt, fish and farm on the Maniqui River in the Amazon rainforest in the
Bolivian lowlands.

Their way of
life has similarities to human civilisation thousands of years ago.

It took the
team of scientists and doctors multiple flights and a canoe journey to get
there.

How does your diet compare
with the Tsimane?

17% of their diet is game including wild pig, tapir and capybara
(the world's largest rodent)

7% is freshwater fish including piranha and catfish

Most of the rest comes from family farms growing rice, maize,
manioc root (like sweet potato) and plantains (similar to banana)

It is topped up with foraged fruit and nuts

It means:

72% of calories come from carbohydrates compared with 52% in the
US

14% from fat compared with 34% in the US, Tsimane also consume
much less saturated fat

Both Americans and Tsimane have 14% of calories from protein,
but

Tsimane have more lean meat

How fit are they?

They are
also far more physically active with the men averaging 17,000 steps a day and
the women 16,000.

Even the over-60s have a step count over
15,000.

It makes most people's struggle to get
near 10,000 seem deeply insignificant.

"They achieve a remarkable dose of
exercise," says Dr Gregory Thomas, one of the researchers and from Long
Beach Memorial medical centre in California.

So how magnificent are
their hearts?

The
scientists looked for coronary artery calcium or "CAC" - which is a
sign of clogged up blood vessels and risk of a heart attack.

The scientists scanned 705 people's
hearts in a CT scanner after teaming up with a research group scanning
mummified bodies.

At the age of 45, almost no Tsimane had
CAC in their arteries while 25% of Americans do.

By the time
they reach age 75, two-thirds of Tsimane are CAC-free compared with the
overwhelming majority of Americans (80%) having signs of CAC.

The
researchers have been studying this group for a long time so it is not simply a
case of the unhealthy Tsimane dying young.

Michael
Gurven, a professor of anthropology at University of California, Santa Barbara,
told the BBC: "It is much lower than in every other population where data
exists.

"The
closest were Japanese women, but it's still a different ballpark
altogether."

Is it only diet and
exercise?

They also
smoke a lot less, but they do get more infections which could potentially
increase the risk of heart problems by causing inflammation in the body.

One idea is
that intestinal worms - which dampen immune reactions - could be more common
and this may help protect the heart.

What can I learn?

Prof Gurven
said: "I would say we need a more holistic approach to physical exercise
rather than just at the weekend.

"Bicycle to work, take the stairs,
write your story on a treadmill desk." (I didn't)

Dr Thomas
said: "It could be to maintain health we need to be exercising much more
than we do.

"The
modern world is keeping us alive, but urbanisation and the specialisation of
the labour force could be new risk factors [for an unhealthy heart].

"They
also live in small communities, life is very social and they maintain a
positive outlook."

What do experts make of
all this?

Dr Gavin
Sandercock, reader in clinical physiology (cardiology) at the University of
Essex, said: "This is an excellent study with unique findings.

"The
Tsimane get 72% of their energy from carbohydrates.

"The fact that they have the best
indicators of cardiovascular health ever reported is the exact opposite to many
recent suggestions that carbohydrates are unhealthy."

Prof Naveed
Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said: "This is a beautiful real
life study which reaffirms all we understand about preventing heart disease.

"Simply
put, eating a healthy diet very low in saturated fat and full of unprocessed
products, not smoking and being active life long, is associated with the lowest
risk of having furring up of blood vessels."

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